


Music to My Ears

by koi_ling



Series: Nothing Is Gonna Take You from My Side [4]
Category: Winner (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Gen, HAHAH the tags, MINYOON MOVING TO SEOUL, Moving In Together, Moving Out, Musicians, transition chapter like no others, very disjointed very poorly written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:43:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7874884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koi_ling/pseuds/koi_ling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mino and Seungyoon finish high-school and move to Seoul. Together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Music to My Ears

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter of transition … is very disjointed, uhm. I am sorry. I'll try to post the next one soon. Minyoon moving to Seoul together and Music, that’s all this is about.

“Can you believe I’m the ugliest of the band? Me... Kang Seungyoon? I mean yes, of course I can’t compete with Jinu hyung, that would be preposterous even for me, it’s like comparing a mortal to the gods, a piece of terracotta to marble statues – you just don’t do that – but what did I deserve to get such a…”, he waves his hand in the air, trying to find the right word, “such a _bassist_ like that – we might as well end up modelling or call it ‘The Faces and Their Leader’, at this point, which– are you even listening to me?”

Mino mumbles a dry “no” and goes back to his telephone, a fist planted in his mouth as he whines reading the shortly cruel text flashing on the screen.

“Did you… perhaps, I mean, maybe, did you break up with–er, whatsername?”, Seungyoon asks cautiously, before putting an arm around his shoulders. Mino feels a little better with just that.

“Sunghee”.

“Right, Sunghee. Did you break up with Sunghee?”

“I didn’t. She did”. Mino can’t control the touch of anger in his voice, even though it’s not as serious as it might appear. He just feels the need to rant for a little and he knows Seungyoon won’t turn his back on him.

They’re used to this kind of situation, anyway. Mino always falls head over heels for pretty ladies, they get together and it usually doesn’t last much more than two weeks. A month must be his record.

“You can’t possibly be sad for a relationship that didn’t go past… three days?”, Seungyoon sounds incredulous, despite knowing how Mino takes all these things to his heart.

Mino pouts, feeling hurt by that even if it’s true. “Well, it’s – you just don’t break up with people that easily! I’m not that – that easy too”.

Seungyoon scoffs at him, now. “Well, it all started with a one night stand so you couldn’t expect much”, Mino’s eyes dart toward him, and if glances could kill… “But I guess we could hang out tonight, have few beers and all, we can call Jinu hyung and maybe invite that ass– my bassist too, and Jiho hyung if he’s willing to set a foot outside his studio, and–”

“That’s fine, but… just you and me will be ok, no need to bother all of our friends”.

“So I’m the only one who will have to endure your whining tonight, right?”, Seungyoon crushes his shoulders with his arm, suddenly sighing at loud. Mino catches the smile at the corner of his lips, though.

“You’re my best friend, you can’t run away”, Mino chants.

 

Hours later, Mino’s hand is wrapped around the neck of a soju bottle and he gives his best in an impromptu diss track that’s almost a drunk’s rant – it could be rancorous but that’s now that Mino is, even with alcohol in his body, so it all turns rather hilarious when he admits Seungyoon has prettier hands and more luscious lips than his ex.

Seungyoon looks at him puzzled, messes his hair with his fingers and eventually laughs.

 

*

 

Mino and Seungyoon move to Seoul after high school. Two suitcases each, a guitar on Seungyoon’s shoulder, a bag of comics under Mino’s arm.

Their first flat is so small Seungyoon can touch Mino’s fingertips from his bed, arms extended so that their skin would brush. The first day they order two bowls of _jjajangmyeon_ like their mothers recommended them to do, and some beer to celebrate this new adulthood. For almost a year, their home is a room and its forcedly shared space. After that they’ll upgrade to a new flat, a room for each, a kitchen that deserves its name, no more fingertips touching before falling asleep together.

Moving to Seoul is hard – the hardest things they’ve ever done in their lives – but it’s also the best choice for them. Between natural homesickness and the sensation of being just a small drop in the big ocean that is the city, there is some sort of scarily giddy but breathtakingly exhilarating feel of freedom – that’s it, tucked right between work and practice, terrifying and exciting freedom.

They can do what they want, now that they are alone.

They take different paths because their music tastes diverge, but it’s just the right thing to do since they won’t let that impair what they have together. Nothing can tear them apart, not even themselves – because their dreams is the exact same, in the end, and it’s to make their music.

And there is freedom in that too, Mino thinks, the most satisfying – the freedom to create, the power to make something, to convey all their feelings and inspiration in a song.

It’s something they can both understand deep inside, in that corner of the soul they rarely talk about, like a primitive pleasure that’s comparable only to sex or feeding or breathing – something that it’s right there, part of them, indiscernible. Unbreakable and untamed.

It’s part of them just as much as blood and bones. As much as their friendship.

  
Mino starts performing in small clubs – cheap beers and dim lights, a layer of dirt on the ground and a lot of teenagers in the crowd – with his new crew, the Royal Class. It’s all harder than his young self imagined, because he’s tired after his part-time job and inspiration doesn’t come as easily as he expected, but it still feels the best. He’s living his dream and every problem looks smaller when he’s performing on stage, sweaty bodies pushing forward, almost leaping toward him, and his voice filling the hall, even if he can’t hear a thing.

He raps by memory, his veins almost popping in his neck, blood and the screams filling his ears. It feels so – so different. He’s never been this alive, and he’s never believed it would feel like he’s almost dying, like life itself will end him one day and he’ll perfectly be content with it.

Seungyoon has his own band, too. He’s dragged their old sunbae, Kim Jinwoo, in his project, and after few months Ahn Jaehyo comes to save the duo with his bass guitar.

 

*

 

“Hugeboy, really?”, Seungyoon scorns at the stage name Mino has accurately picked after two weeks of indecisive worry. “Then what i am, the Zeppelin?”

“When will you stop showing off about your family jewels?”, Mino can’t believe they’re at it again, but it’s not so different from the silly quarrels he and Kyung have on daily basis (while Jiho just tries to shut them out by keeping the volume of his headphones so high he’ll probably turn deaf in few years). Whoever thought that gays are supposed to be feminine and bashful and all that shit, is wrong as fuck.

“When you’ll stop boosting your ego”, Seungyoon grins, bastard, and Mino wants to punch that smile away. He should have never walked around naked at home. Not that he’s _lacking_ in that department, it’s just Seungyoon being surprisingly gifted – you wouldn’t bet two cents on him with his clothes on.

He changes topic instead. “Did Jaehyo give you a hard time again? You are too edgy tonight”.

“That – that bassist and his attitude! I can’t even win him with my aegyo, I don’t know what to do to let him follow my lead without him being sassy all the time”.

“Your aegyo is terrible, I’m not surprised”.

“You love it”, Seungyoon whines, his voice suddenly changing, all cutesy and high-pitched. Mino does love it but cringes nevertheless.

“You should just be your usual strict self”, he replies seriously, before giving in to aegyo and making weird sounds like Jiho hyung would do when he’s trying to act cute. Seungyoon stares at him for few instants before breaking in a laugh. His hand searches Mino’s arm, squeezing it as he’s shaken by uncontrollable giggles. Mino can’t help the big smile on his face.

It takes few minutes to come down from the high of silly laughter – after few other examples of ugly aegyo and Mino asking Seungyoon to feed him in the most cringe-worthy way – and then Seungyoon’s touch leaves him, hand back on his own lap. Mino doesn’t know why he feels a bit emptier, maybe it’s because he finished his last ounce of energy a minute ago.

“But the real problem is that something is missing”. Seungyoon looks as tired as Mino, spent. “I can feel it. We’re not good enough… this way we’ll never make it. We need something to spice it out”.

“You’re good”, Mino says, his eyes pinned on Seungyoon. He’s looking away.

“I know, I know we’re good”, he nods, ruffling his hair before pulling them down. “But not enough, not yet”.

 

It takes few months to Seungyoon to come to Mino with a wide smile and excitement written all over his face. When he does, Mino knows it’s definitive.

“I’ve found it! The touch of spice we needed. And he’s amazing! You’re gonna love him and how we sound with him”.

Mino is affected by the thrill in his voice and grins back at Seungyoon, letting him plop down on their small couch for two. Seungyoon can’t stay still and wiggles in his seat.

“He’s tall and quite bulky – just like you, I think – but he’s all kinds of gorgeous, which could be a put-down because I clearly stated we would accept only people who aren’t more good looking than I am but, oh well, I guess that’s my destiny”, he shrugs his shoulders.

“You just didn’t add a member to your band because you’ve a thing for him, didn’t you?” Mino can’t believe Seungyoon would do something like this, he’s not Jinu hyung (always too weak to beauty) or Park Kyung (always weak to his hormones).

“Oh come on, man, I’m not that stupid. I must admit the looks were relevant at first, but what really sold it was his voice. And he plays electric guitar too, so we can change our sound too, make it richer and deeper, which is totally glorious, don’t you think?”

“I won’t say anything until I get to listen to him – but you seem too smitten to be objective”, Mino says, down-to-earth.

“Jinwoo and Jaehyo loved him too, and they were objective for sure, they’re not even gay to start with”. Seungyoon sounds more defensive now, sensing Mino’s reclutancy.

“Fine”, he concedes.

“And we can also sing together, which add a touch of epic to the plate. I already figured how we could cover The Phantom of the Opera, Nightwish version”.

“I can’t imagine Jinu hyung playing metal”, he chuckles at that. Seungyoon softens at his side.

“Me neither, his pop side would not allow that. Anyway, that doesn’t really count. What counts is that this guy – this Nam Taehyun kid, he’s younger than me (by few months but we decided he’ll call me hyung anyway) – is what we needed. I could feel it in the air. He’s it”.

Mino is still a bit wary about it, but Seungyoon’s smile is too wide to stay serious any longer. He’s genuinely happy he’s found someone like that, someone Seungyoon thinks will make their band so much better.

Mino side-hugs Seungyoon, messing his perfectly tousled curls with a hand.

 

*

 

They are making music. Music they like. Mino with his crew, Seungyoon with his band. There are tons of incompleted songs, drafts, simple tunes, lyrics scratched on the back of books Mino is reading, newborn thoughts, projects – a whole universe that is composed only by music. In that reality, all the dull routine, the shifts at night, paychecks, Mino’s love stories, all is gone. Those are things that can’t exist where music lives.

He lets Seungyoon in, though. Seungyoon is the best when it comes to talk about the songs he’s composing and ask for a piece of advice, because his tastes are so different from Mino’s that he’s completely honest in his opinions. It’s amazing how they influenced each other during all these years, but that hasn’t changed the fact they have strong preferences for their music. Mino will listen to the rock songs Seungyoon suggests, and Seungyoon will jam along the hip-hop tracks Mino will recommend, but they’re still true to themselves.

And it’s good. It’s perfect. They’ve never felt this alive, this young, this strong.  

**Author's Note:**

> [Phantom of the Opera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VgLKXD-BoY) \+ [Seungyoon’s band](https://twitter.com/kokky__/status/769135946021343232)!


End file.
